What does Champions League really mean for Celtic & Rangers?

Champions League play-off: Kairat v Celtic (agg 0-0)

Venue: Central Stadium, Almaty Date: Tuesday, 26 August Time: 17:45 BST

Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio Scotland Extra & Sounds, live text commentary on the BBC Sport website & app

Can a season be won or lost in August? Don't be daft.

But can it plot an arduous and harrowing path for campaigns to come, and either offer up a lavish bounty of money or leave you emptying the biscuit tin looking for transfer funds?

You bet it can.

Scotland's clubs have been hard at it on the European front for more than a month, striving to make it into their respective league phases. Four remain, with Celtic and Rangers on the precipice of making it - or not, depending how full your glass is - into the Champions League.

Rangers find themselves 3-1 down travelling to face Club Brugge in their play-off second leg, while Celtic had the tame wind of a 0-0 draw to waft them all the way to the far end of Kazakhstan for Tuesday's return with Kairat Almaty.

It's the fabled land of milk, honey, wads of cash and more coefficient points than you could dream of. But how important is it that they make it into the Champions League this week?

Right, let's talk cash first.

Of the three European club competitions, it's no surprise the Champions League carries the biggest financial incentive.

Qualification for the proper competition brings 18m euro for each club. On top of that, you can add ticket sales, merchandise, additional sponsorship and as much corporate cash as you can shake a giant prawn sandwich at.

In comparison, dropping into the Europa League will shrink that 18m euro to just above 4m euro. A win is worth 450,000 euro instead of 2m euro.

But would our two hopefuls not earn more money in the Europa League given they'll likely win more games and have a better chance of progression? In reality, no, given the huge chunk of money they'd forfeit to enter, and the premium on all the extras that go with Champions League football.

"There is that sizable amount," said football finance expert Kieran Maguire.

"I mean it could be argued that a Scottish club has a greater chance of progressing in the Europa League to the further stages. So that could act as a counterbalance to not being in the Champions League.

"But I think from a fan's point of view, you want to see your club up against the elite of Europe. I think both the fans of Celtic and Rangers feel that they should be there on a regular basis. So financially, it is a hit.

"There are solidarity payments that come from Uefa to other clubs in the division and whilst it's not a huge amount, it's always welcome."

The key thing on the line other than cold, hard cash, is cold, hard coefficient points.

These are what determines where your country sits in the rankings, and ultimately decides how many European spots you're going to get and where you're getting them.

Right now, Scotland is teetering on the brink. Having already lost an automatic Champions League spot for the Scottish Premiership winners, they face not climbing into the top 15 countries.

If that happens, the summer of discontent and endless qualifiers starts in 2027.

Scotland are currently chasing Austria in 15th place, and Gavin Noon of Scotland's Coefficient explains how crucial Champions League qualification really is.

"Austria are 2.8 coefficient points ahead of us, so if you translate that into how many matches you would need to win in the league phase to make that gap up - it's 0.4 points for a win - so that's equal to seven wins, but that's seven wins more than Austria to cut that gap," he explains.

"However, there's big bonus points on offer just for qualifying for the Champions League, so if Rangers and Celtic both win their second legs on Tuesday and Wednesday night, and reach the league phase, that 2.8 gap will be eliminated, completely gone.

"That's because it's 1.2 bonus points to Scotland's coefficient for reaching the Champions League phase, and winning on the night is 0.2 points, so it would mean they would both add 1.4 points to Scotland's coefficient, double that, that's 2.8, that eliminates the gap."

But what about the theory that they'd be better in the lesser competition because there's more chance of winning games?

Similarly to the financial side of things, that argument falls down given the huge benefits just by reaching the competition.

Also, teams across the competitions earn points depending where they finish in their respective league phases, with the lowest-ranked Champions League team earning the same amount of points as the team in the Europa League who finishes first.

"An example is if a team reaches the Champions League, and they have one draw and seven losses, that would be worth more to Scotland's coefficient than reaching the Europa League, having three wins and a draw, and finishing 24th," says Noon.

"So reaching the knockout phase, at that moment in time they would have still added more points, purely by getting into the Champions League and having seven losses."

If you're still following this, then strap in.

This season, Scotland started with five teams in Europe across three competitions and various stages. Celtic and Rangers entering Champions League qualifying, Aberdeen and Hibs into the Europa League route, while Dundee United were in Conference League qualifying.

If Scotland were to fall out the top 15, there is a huge drop off on what would come for season 2026-27.

"You don't have five teams in Europe anymore, you only have four," explains Noon.

"If you look at United this season, they did really well, they only just went out on penalties, and the new scenario, which will happen in two years' time if we don't finish in the top 15, United wouldn't have even entered Europe.

"Same last season for St Mirren, that was their first campaign since the late 80s, like there's parties in the streets of Paisley and that, it was such a big thing.

"These sorts of teams just wouldn't get that anymore."

There's also huge ramifications further up the table.

Rather than our league winners going in at the play-off round of the Champions League, it would be three qualifying rounds with no guarantee of league phase football.

The team in second would go from Champions League qualifying straight down into Conference League qualifying, while the Scottish Cup winners would go in at Europa League first round qualifying.

Former Rangers striker & BBC Scotland pundit Steven Thompson

Both Celtic and Rangers have got strong reputations, they're massive clubs. Celtic have been a regular in the Champions League, Rangers… they haven't been as much.

I don't think many other clubs' supporters give it too much thought.

Clearly for the general good of Scottish football, you want as many teams competing at the highest level possible in European football. It looks good for the country, it's better for the coefficient and it brings in more money to the game in general.

There's lots of positives to the clubs being in the Champions League but I'm not awfully sure how it would affect the rest of the clubs in Scottish football because everybody's looking after their own thing and money's tight with every club.

It's a catch-22 [picking Europa League over Champions League]. Do you want the money, or do you want the positive run?

The Europa League is still a big, big tournament and if our teams were to go far in the tournament, other clubs and other supporters around Europe would look and go, 'Rangers are there, Celtic are there, they're doing well'.